Mid-Year Goals Check-In

We are now half way through 2020, which is crazy, so it's time to look back on the first half of the year and check-in with the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I was unsure about even making goals for 2020, so I haven't really been focusing on them. I didn't make as many goals for myself in 2020 as I have in past years, though I'm not sure that will make it any less likely that I will completely fail at all of them. 

Goodreads Reading Challenge

I always set my Goodreads goal for 50 books, some years I read way under that but other years I manage to read more. I am currently 11 books ahead of schedule, having read 34 books so far in 2020. I haven't had the 'stay at home' advantage that a lot of other people have had in the past few months, as I have still been working as normal, so I'm pretty happy with that number. I think I have a pretty good chance of reaching 50 this year.

Finish Some Series

I wanted to get through some of the many series I have started but not finished in 2020. So far, I don't think I've finished a single series. I have made some progress on a couple of series, and started a few new ones, but my progress on this goal seems to have slowed a lot recently. 

Reduce My Physical TBR

This is the goal every year that I fail miserably. Of the 34 books I have read so far this year, only 7 of them were books I have physically owned prior to this year. I haven't bought a lot of books this year so my physical TBR isn't growing massively, but it isn't shrinking either.

Blog More Consistently

This is another goal I have every year, but I think this year is the best I have done with this one in a while. I did have a bit of a lull for a few months, but I have been managing to post around twice a week most weeks since the end of April. I'm really hoping I can keep this up throughout the year.

Photograph Every Book I Read

I wanted to share every book I read in 2020 on my bookstagram that I made but kept neglecting after feeling I'm just not creative enough to take nice pictures. I stopped caring about my pictures looking as good as everyone else's. as my goal was just to have a visual documentation of my reading year, and I have been keeping it up. I'm not very up to date with it but I am trying.

I've not been doing as bad as I expected! I need to finish some series and read some of the books I own, but other than that I'm not doing too bad. 

I mentioned in my Summer TBR post that the current situation in the world made me look more closely at the kind of books I have been reading. I was really quite disgusted at myself when I discovered that I have read almost entirely from white authors so far in 2020, and this is something I want to change. I'm making it a goal for the rest of the year, but also just forever, to read more books from Black and POC authors. I would also like to be a bit more aware of the books I'm picking up and conscious of author identity as I want to be reading books from people of all backgrounds and identities and promoting their stories here on my blog. I really hope I can do better in the remainder of the year, and in the future in general. I'm going to try harder to do better.

Sophie :)

Find out how you can help the Black Lives Matter movement here.

I'm Back & A Few Changes

Oh my days, life has been crazy! I am so sad that I have had to basically neglect this blog for the majority of this year, but so many life changes meant that I had to prioritise everything else going on. However, things are hopefully starting to settle down and I'm back into some kind of routine so I am hoping this will mean I can get back into the blogging game.

While I am so excited to be back, there are some things that I want to change. During my break from blogging, I realised there were some things that I just don't enjoy about it. I was so focused on trying to do what is expected of a book blogger that I didn't bother to think about whether or not those were things I enjoyed. I have decided that, since this is purely a hobby for me, my main focus should be the things I enjoy and I shouldn't put pressure on myself to do the things I "should" be doing.

As much as this may go against everything a book blogger should be, I hate writing reviews. I have always felt this incredible pressure to try to review all of the books I read and never felt like I was doing a good enough job, probably because it always felt like a chore. Now, I'm not saying I'm going to stop reviewing book completely. I just think I need to calm it down a bit and just review books when I have something to say. It is so hard, I feel, to write a full review for a 3 star, totally average, nothing special book when I can sum up my thoughts in a short paragraph in my wrap up. So, from now on, I will still be posting the odd review, but I will not be trying to review everything I read.

The other thing I am wanting to change is incorporating other topics. I love reading and always will, but I have other things I love and want to talk about. I have been doing this a little bit through my 'What I've Been Watching' posts, and I would like to include more TV/movies content, as well as some other things I enjoy.

So basically, I'm back but expect a few small changes around here.

What kind of things would you like to see on this blog?

Sophie :)

2018 Goals | Mid-Year Update

There comes a point in every year where I am struck down by the mother of all slumps. This slump tends to involve both reading and blogging, I have no motivation to do either. This is where I find myself right now, during the month I have the most time to devote to reading and blogging. In an attempt to get myself out of this slump and back on track, I thought it might be helpful to take a look back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year and see how I am doing on them now that we have passed the mid-way point of the year.

Goodreads Reading Challenge

Progress: 42/50

This is a number I am super happy about! I set my goal at 50 books every year and have never surpassed that number, in fact I usually don't even reach it. It isn't something I pay much attention to but it is nice to see that I have read way more than usual in the first half of the year. As long as this slump doesn't last too long, I think there's a pretty good chance I'll hit this goal by the end of the year.

Finish 5 Series

Progress: 1/5

I haven't done so well on finishing series so far this year. I was a lot more focused on this goal at the start of the year and then kind of forgot about it. I do still plan on finishing more series in the second half of the year but I'm not quite sure if I'll manage another four. The one series I have finished so far, the DIMILY trilogy by Estelle Maskame, I absolutely loved so that has definitely encouraged me to get reading the other series I have started.

Listen To 5 Audiobooks

Progress: 7/5

Smashed it! I went through a phase of listening to a lot of audiobooks, which meant that I had hit my goal of listening to 5 by May! I'm not raising this number to set myself a further goal but I would like to continue listening to audiobooks throughout the rest of the year as I have been really enjoying them.

Re-Read 5 Books

Progress: 2/5

Confession: I haven't re-read anything since January! This is another goal that I was very focused on at the start of the year and then just forgot about. I have been distracted by a lot of new releases and books that have been sitting on my shelves for a while, so despite wanting to re-read some old favourites I just haven't been doing so. I definitely want to focus more on this goal in the second half of the year.

Read 5 Before Buying

This goal has pretty much gone out the window. I have not been buying nearly as many books this year and if I had stuck to this goal and bought 1/2 new books with every 5 books read, I would probably have bought more. I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping my book buying under control, however I don't think this will continue with YALC coming up.

Physical TBR Under 100

At the start of the year, my physical TBR was sitting about around 130 books and I wanted to get this number under 100. Despite not buying a whole lot of physical books so far this year, I have been reading a lot more eBooks than usual and this has meant that my physical TBR has stayed around the 130 mark. I definitely need to make this a priority for the coming months.

Blog Consistently

I started off so well with this goal! I have been trying so hard to blog consistently this year, and actually managed pretty well in February, but life just got in the way. I have had a pretty tough first half of the year and so my blog has had to take a backseat. I don't know what is going to happen in the second half of the year but I am hopeful that I can get back to blogging as consistently as I can, at least once I get out of this stupid slump.

Revamp Reviews

I didn't really have any ideas in mind as to how I would do this nothing has really changed. I still don't know how I want to change things but I am getting bored of my reviews and just not wanting to write them at the moment. I really need to look into this properly.

Bookstagram

I tried. I failed again. I might try again but who knows.

In general, I'm pretty happy with how my year has gone so far. While I might not be on track with many of the goals I set myself, I have read a lot more than I usually do and have enjoyed the majority of books I have read. I plan to do a post focusing on my mid-year statistics, which I think will be quite interesting. For now though, how are you doing with your goals so far this year?

Sophie :)

Updates | I Will Be Back

I just want to write a quick note today to say that I haven't completely abandoned this blog. I haven't posted in so long due to university and my personal life both being incredibly stressful. However, now that it's getting to the holidays and I am almost done with uni until January, I had great intentions of jumping back into blogging. Unfortunately, life had other plans. I currently have no working internet connection at home and won't have for the next two weeks at least! I will try and find a way to post before then if I can but it could be a challenge.

So, I will be back blogging as soon as I possibly can and I can't wait to get back into the swing of things when my internet is finally fixed!

Reading Challenges & Goals | Mid-Year Update

We are very close to the middle of 2017 already and while that thought absolutely terrifies me, it means it's time to take a look at my reading goals progress so far. I think I'm a little early this year but since I usually end up doing my mid-year posts around September I figured a few weeks early is better than months late.

I've had a pretty good reading year so far but I often get a bit slumpy in the second half of the year. I'm really hoping that's not the case this year and I can carry on as I have been so far. I think my reading has changed a bit this year and already I am realising some things I would like to change about my goals for next year. Sticking with the current year though, I shared my 2017 reading goals at the beginning of the year so let's have a look at how I'm doing so far.

Goodreads Reading Challenge
Goal: 50
Progress: 26
According to Goodreads I am 4 books ahead of schedule. I'm pretty happy with this considering there were a couple of months in which I read very little. If I can continue reading as much as I have been and don't fall into a slump I can hopefully complete this challenge.

Around The Year In 52 Books
Goal: 52
Progress: 15
To be on track I should be at 24 books by now so I'm not doing quite as well with this challenge. As much as I enjoy this challenge, I have realised that this is probably not something I will be doing again next year. I have really been enjoying just reading what I want rather than being confined to specific categories, however I am reading books for this challenge that I may not have picked up otherwise. I definitely still plan on trying to complete this challenge for this year.

TBR Under 100
Goal: 100
Progress: 167
In my reading goals post I said just my physical TBR, however it seems to have become my whole TBR, including ebook and audiobooks, which is possibly why I'm not doing so well. My physical TBR is actually down to 138 so I will probably manage to get that down by the end of the year, but if I'm including everything else I don't see it happening.

Read 5 Before Buying
To cut back on my book buying I wanted to read 5 books before allowing myself to buy any physical books and I was limiting it to 2 books each time. I am very proud of the fact that I have actually been sticking to that. I am allowing myself to buy ebooks, which I have been doing more than I would like, but the main goal was to clear my shelves a bit. Having read 26 books, I have been allowed to buy 10 so far and have actually only bought 9. I really think this is the way for me to cut back on buying books.

Read More eBooks
Goal: 10+
Progress: 9
This goal is pretty simple, I wanted to read more eBooks this year than last year. Last year I read 9 so reading 10 or more this year I will be very happy with. So far I have read 9 so I am definitely accomplishing this goal.

Read More Series
I don't really have a goal for this one, or really a measure of how well I am doing. I just wanted to get through the books in series, whether than be first books, sequels or conclusions, that I have been putting off. So far this year I have read 9 books in series. I would like to read more but I think that is very likely to happen in the second half of the year.

Get Back Into Audiobooks
I didn't listen to any audiobooks in 2016 and I wanted to change that this year. I did really well with this in the first two months of the year, listening to 3 audiobooks, however I have stopped again. I am happy that I have listened to 3 already but I would like to be listening to at least one every couple of months.

Read What I Want
I feel like I have been doing well with this goal to some extent. I have stopped creating monthly TBRs for myself as I was beginning to feel a bit restricted throughout the month, and I have really enjoyed just picking up a book I was in the mood for. However, I have still been slightly restricted by the books I am wanting to read for the Around The Year In 52 Books challenge. This is one goal I want to focus more on next year.

I also included some blogging goals in that post so I thought I would update on them as well.

Blog More Consistently
Consistent is really not a word I would use to describe my blogging at the moment. I have been more consistent in terms of posting at least once every week, not including when I'm on holiday. However, I have been inconsistent in terms of how much I am posting each week. I'll have one post one week and five another, it just depends on what time I have. With my life at the moment I don't really think this is going to change any time soon.

Have More Variety
At the beginning of the year I was definitely starting to include more of a variety of posts, including some discussions that I really enjoyed writing. However, as things have become extremely hectic I have gone back into the same old schedule of wrap ups, reviews, memes and tags. This is definitely something I want to focus on more in the second half of the year.

Keep Up To Date With Reviews
I have never been so up to date with reviews and I am so proud of myself. It makes such a change not writing reviews 3/4 months after I have read the book and I think it has improved my reviews since I can actually remember the things I'm talking about and how the book made me feel. Hopefully I can stick to this from now on.

Bookstagram
The less said about this the better. I have completely abandoned by bookstagram it seems. I'm just not a very creative person and I don't have the ideas to take nice artsy pictures. I may go back to it but it isn't a top priority at the moment.

I don't think I have done too badly with my goals so far this year but I know I have some things I need to work on in the second half. I have a challenges page on my blog where you can have a look at what books I have read for each of my challenges and keep up to date with my progress throughout the year.

How has your reading year been so far? Have you been doing well with your goals and challenges?

Sophie :)

Updates | Getting Back Into Blogging

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it's been almost 4 months since I last posted anything! Life has been pretty mad over the past few months and blogging most definitely took a back seat for a while, even reading did at one point.

In September I started my second degree and boy is it different from the first time around! For my first degree I pretty much managed to get away with doing as little as possible. I didn't go to class, I did all my assignments the day before they were due and studied as little as I could get away with. Somehow, I still graduated with a decent degree at the end of all that! This time, I definitely can't do that! I am now doing a nursing degree and it is so much more work than I ever imagined. I spent the first few months either in uni for theory lectures or at home spending all my free time studying and doing online work. I am now just about to finish my first placement and I honestly don't remember the last time I was this tired! It is incredibly hard work and takes a lot of my time and energy, especially as I want to do really well this time around.

So basically that's where I've been! As I said I am almost finished my first placement and after that I have two days of class, one assignment and one exam and then I am finished for Christmas! No doubt I'll still find some work to do over the Christmas break but I definitely plan to devote a lot of my time to reading and blogging over that time and hopefully get back into the swing of things.

Expect a wrap up as soon as I can, that should give you an idea of how little time I have had to read these past few months!

Sophie :)